Crossing Equator

We have now officially sailed across the Equator.  At approx 1am we crossed the Equator, but King Neptune only came on board this morning with Queen Double D for the ceremony.  All the Pollywogs (us) became Shellbacks.  Glad they only selected a few representative passengers to be grunged!  Didn’t relish being slathered in eggs, spaghetti and other unmentionable globs!

Hawaii

Three stops here.  The Big Island of Hilo, Honolulu and Kauai.  On  Hilo we had a volcano crater tour which was very interesting.  Largest volcano in world is here – the only one that can be seen from outer space so they say.  First time we have come across a bus driver who is also the tour guide.  She did both very well.

Honolulu was our shopping destination for sneakers.  Looking for named brands cheap.  We found them but chose not to buy as our options tended to be pink, bright blue and fluorescent green!  Not our colours!  Glad we had already been to Pearl Harbour as weather too windy for tenders to get out to Arizona memorial.

Third island of Kauai was very scenic.  Many movies have been filmed here including Elvis’ Blue Hawaii.  Went out to their version of the Grand Canyon.  This was quite different from the one in Arizona but still very spectacular.  Again our driver was our tour guide and he was also very good at both.  He was passionate about his island’s history and heritage.  Told us many legends about the islands and the landmarks, in some ways very similar to the oral history of the aborigines.  We had a very nice lunch at a resort hotel, but the last ones in did not fare as well – not a lot left.  Problem was not our little  bus, but the big ones that came after.

Sea days now until Pago Pago, lose a day, then Fiji, New Zealand (2 stops) and Sydney.  Where has the time gone?

 Lava Tube

 Tsunami Warning system - tested each month loudly!

Waimei Canyon

Los Angeles 10^th August

Hard to realize, but it is four weeks since we came on board in Dover.  Quite veterans of the ship now and manage to get to where we want to go without backtracking very often.

In Los Angeles today so caught a taxi to Long Beach, visited the old Queen Mary, (as if we haven’t seen enough of the inside of a ship!).  Would have been a life of luxury for those who travelled in her years ago.  Don’t think however I would have liked to have been one of the 800,000 crammed into her during the period of WW11.  Sure their accommodation was nowhere near as comfortable as pre and post war sailings.

Russian submarine tour was optional extra, but we decided that it wasn’t for us.

Visited two of the USA’s institutions – Walmart and the big M.

 The Queen and the Russian sub

Panama plus

2^nd August

Transit of the Panama Canal today.  This started early in the morning and by the time we had been through three sets of locks, with varying numbers of chambers and steps, it was late afternoon.  I know some readers of this blog attempted to see what was happening, but time difference didn’t make that easy and the bow camera didn’t show sides of ship.

What a magnificent engineering feat this was.  Huge cuts made in the mountains, horrific working conditions and primitive machinery.  The new expansion system will make the canal much more accessible for larger ships and alleviate need to unload some containers one end, train these to the other end and reload.

We only had 25cm clearance each side in one lock, so imagine the panamax ships.

There were quite a few ships waiting in the Gulf of Panama after the transit and they can wait for three days sometimes for their turn to transit.

Made a sign to hand on the balcony for the cameras.  Probably no one spotted it so have included it below.

4^th August

Puntarenas today.  Interesting place with a fine black sand on the beach.  Everyone swimming and playing on the beach looked so dirty, but guess it would be no worse than our white sand to clean off and out of clothes.

Took a bus trip out to Espiritu Santo coffee plantation for a very informative tour and tasting, before going on to Sarchi.  Here they make decorated ox carts for sale.  Up to about 20 years ago these painted carts, which identified their owners by the decoration, were still used in the mountains for carrying goods.  All the equipment in the factory is run by a large water wheel – very clever.   It was quite pleasant temperature up in the mountains, but when we got back to the ship, the heat was very noticeable.  Walked through the little stalls at the port entrance but didn’t part with any money.

Pier is quite long (about 500m) so there is a little train to take people from ship to shore.  Big tidal movement – 12 feet today but up to 16 feet so pier is built out a long way and ships have to run with the tides.

 Coffee growing on hill sides - all work done by hand

 A souvenir painted ox cart

Caribbean Islands

July 30^th

Aruba in the Caribbean today.  Booked an excursion that included a drive around the island to several places of significance and an experience in a semi submersible boat (one with a viewing area under water), to look at a ship wreck and the topical fish.

What absolutely beautiful beaches.  Sand is fine and white with turquoise blue green sea the other side.  Small thatched beach huts dot the beaches – just what one dreams of a tropical paradise.

Weather forecast was 28, but with the humidity, it seemed warmer.  When we returned from our excursion we walked into town, but didn’t stay as it was so warm and the shops were all high end designer products though there was a market section of small shops selling tourist souvenirs.

An overnight sail took us to Curacao, the largest of the ABC Islands. Although hot, there was a stronger breeze today and that kept it more pleasant than Aruba.  Island is not as arid, nor probably quite as pretty as Aruba, but still nice to see.  Have learnt how to correctly saw the name of the place too.  It is Cur-ah-sow. With the ‘ah’ being quick and the ‘sow’ being like the pig.  (A bit of useless trivia for you!)

Visited the Hato caves and saw some basic formations and some fruit bats before a walking tour of the old area of town established by the Dutch in the 1700’s.  The house are all attractively painted in many different colours and shades. The old floating pontoon bridge was interesting as it opens by moving like a gate, to allow ships to enter the harbour (as many as 30 times a day).

Makes you feel a bit ignorant when you find out most islanders are fluent in at least three languages.  Dutch is official language, and they are taught English from primary school as well as speaking their own island language and then either French or German later.  Our cave guide did tour in English and Spanish switching to either language mid sentence almost.

 Curacao Floating market

 Aruba Beach

Aruba town

Next Blog

New York was nowhere near as good a stop as it could have been.  Three hours to clear immigration to start with – slow traffic to get anywhere and a departure time of 5:30 didn’t lend itself to too much sightseeing. 

Ron needed a new foil for his razor, so that was a top priority.  Caught taxi to Macys, bought a new shaver cheaper than the foil – if it had been available!  Had a very good lunch for less than $7.  Serves so large, we shared 1 soup and 1 meat & veg. pack.

Ship was berthed next to the aircraft carrier Intrepid, which is now a museum (space memorabilia included), but we were too late to visit.

As we departed the city, we had good views of Manhattan area, including the new Freedom tower on the twin towers site, and also the Statue of Liberty.  We had sailed by the statue about 5:15 am as we came up the Hudson River, and had some nice photos of it in the dawn light, but still nice to see it in full daylight. 

We had booked a trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, but this was changed because Ellis Island had been badly damaged in the cyclone earlier this year.  Since we didn’t want to spend 2 hours in the gift shop on Liberty Island instead, we cancelled the trip.

Headed off towards the Caribbean, only to hear that a tropical cyclone was forming where we were headed.  Change of plans and port followed.  Sailing path altered and Antigua cancelled and replaced with Aruba.  Haven’t been to either so didn’t fuss us much at all.  

Saw an excellent show the other night with marionettes.  Extremely good and very cleverly done.  Some of the puppets were operated with 8 strings, others up to 16 and apparently tonight we see one with 32 strings.  Lots of strings for one person to get tangled, but that did not happen. 

Manage to spend a bit of time playing 500 and have been attending the “raw beginners” bridge lessons.  Have actually learnt a lot playing both. Watch out our card partners!!

 Statue in the early morning

Freedom tower dwarfs surroundings

New Jersey skyline early dawn

Photos following last blog - internet too slow last time
Windturbines as we are entering Copenhagen harbour - good place for them
and A view of one of the canals in the city centre

Windmill in Rotterdam and the narrow houses

Troll in Oslo - lots of trolls around in streets and shops and a photo from ship as we are approaching the harbour

Torshavn, through the fog.  Picture is clearer than it actually was as filter on camera  improved view